..HELP............i just found a "penny" in our coin jar. it is very different from any i have ever seen before. my daughter ( 10 yrs old) is a nivice collector of odd coins and foreign paper money so she is very interested in this. no pictures but here is what it looks like:::::: very shiny, copper (looks like a new penny) on one side it says (at top) .uncirculated. at bottom it says denver and in middle it has a big D on the other side it has (top) * treasury* (bottom)united states mint and in middle it has this:::: looks like a shield or coat of arms w/ at top an old scale then a /\ in middle w/ ridges and under that an old key any help is greatly appreciated. we have surfed the internet and found nothing. thanks in advance.
I doubt it Roy, the coin in that link is the size of an old silver dollar (Morgan, Ike, et al.). What he is describing is the size of a US cent and is destributed in mint sets to balance out the coins in the set and to "announce" where that sheet of coins was minted. They look like this: P.S. I had a heck of a time finding any in my collection to photograph. It seems that I either throw them away when I break open a mint set or spend them; which is likely how the OP ended up with one. Someone spent it. Technically it has no value, but if you return it to a coin cointing machine it will fool the machine and be counted as a cent since it is made on a cent planchet. Note that I would NOT encourage this since it would constitute fraud.
thanks....... you answered my question. no it was not like the first coin but the 2nd was a perfect match. just something unusual for my daughter to add to her collection now. thanks a bunch. ang